We’ve spent the past few weeks talking about the virtuous cycle, breaking it down into different parts relating to the client experience, to help get to the point where the business is more profitable. Deliver the goods, and you can sell more goods. Provide value, and you’ll have the opportunity to provide more value. It becomes a virtuous cycle – a positive feedback loop – when you plow back that money into your business.
Sell More
Providing more value happens in a couple of ways. First, you can sell more to existing customers. If they are ecstatic with the service you’re providing, then they’ll be more receptive when you bring new offerings. This is the great thing about the IT business – it changes so rapidly that there’s always new offerings you can bring to your clients that have real value. Cloud backup, credential management, and a whole wealth of security products are not only emerging opportunities, but these are genuinely valuable to your clients. While you can often resell these services at a profit, you will need to invest in servicing these items, which is where the reinvestment of profits comes into play.
Invest in Marketing
If you feel that can do more on the marketing side, you probably should. The good news is that SaaS solutions have lowered the costs associated with marketing in recent years, but you still need to invest in the right people to devise and execute the strategies. If your funnel is stagnant – or doesn’t even exist – marketing (and then sales) is a good way to plow back profits to feed the virtuous cycle. Is this part of the client experience? Maybe not, but you’ll have more clients to experience the quality your team brings.
Improve Service
The more competitive your market is, the more difficult it is to differentiate. While you can differentiate with your resale stack, your clients probably don’t know the difference between similar offerings that your competitors might have. It is possible to differentiate on service, however. Reinvesting profits into service can reduce technician turnover, give your team better tools so they work more efficiently, or just help to foster a better organizational culture.
Of course, the sustained value of each of these choices is that you get better, and that improved performance across all aspects of the business reflects further on your status in the marketplace. Once you get to the point where you have clear competitive advantages, growth actually becomes easier, and you can lock in those advantages, making it difficult for your immediate competitors to touch you. At that point, you’re calling your own shots.
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